“Change your mind about dating Alex?” Cole asked. I couldn’t see him in the dark, but we were so close that I could feel his breath on my face.
“What?”
“Well, you just pulled me into a closet nearly naked. I’m assuming you’re going to confess your undying love for me and tell me how you made a mistake that night at the party. Then we could have hot, passionate se—”
“Oh my God, no,” I hissed at him, as my face went warm. “I haven’t changed my mind about anything. We’re playing hide-and- seek and you were about to ruin my spot.”
“Okay, fine. We can skip over the undying love and jump right to the fun part.”
“Cole,” I said, stomping on his foot. “Shut up!”
“God damn, woman! That hurt!”
“Can you guys just kiss or something?” Benny complained. “At least then you’d be quiet. I wanna win.”
“Holy shit, Benny?” Cole exclaimed, his chest heaving against mine in surprise. “Anyone else hiding in here too?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Carmen Sandiego and Where’s Waldo. Now please, be quiet!”
Cole listened to me then, and even though he kept his mouth shut, I was afraid that my heart would give us away. It was pounding so loudly that the entire house must have heard it.
Chapter 16
“Ay me! Sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast?’” Danny said, raising a hand to his heart. The other was clutching a script.
“‘It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?’” Isaac said in a booming voice, flourishing his hands wildly.
“Thank God you’re not in the play,” I mumbled in his direction and shook my head in embarrassment.
Danny, Isaac, and I were sitting on the bleachers at Alex’s baseball game. The seats were metal and burned in the afternoon light. I was wearing a skirt that forced me to sit on the edge of the seat to keep the skin on the back of my legs from getting scorched. My boyfriend was far out in left field, and I could barely see him since the sun was glaring in my eyes.
“‘Not having that which, having, makes them short,’” Danny recited.
When Isaac didn’t answer because his attention was focused on a possible home-run hit, Danny elbowed him in the side.
“Oh, um—‘in love’?” he said, quickly looking down at his copy of the script. Danny was forcing Isaac to run lines with him so I could watch Alex play.
Danny sighed, embodying the lovesick Romeo, “Out.”
Isaac stood up in excitement as the ball flew toward his cousin in the outfield. “Did he catch it?” he demanded a few seconds later. “I can’t tell. The sun is in my eyes.”
“Huh?” I responded. I was trying to watch, but the humidity was making my head feel heavy, and it was hard to concentrate.
“Never mind,” Isaac grumbled and sat back down on the bleachers. “You’re not even paying attention.”
“Neither are you,” Danny told him angrily. “We should be done with this act by now.”
“Dude, why do you even need to go over this? You’ve already had your costume rehearsal,” Isaac complained. When Danny glared at him, he sighed and glanced back down at the script. “‘Of love?’”
“‘Out of her favor, where I am in love.’” Danny said his line without having to look down at the sheet.
“You’re out!” the umpire shouted at a player who tried to slide into home.
“Yes!” Isaac shouted, fixing his attention back down on the field. “Was that two or three?”
“Two, I think,” I answered absentmindedly, but then Alex’s team began to jog back from the field toward the dugout.
Isaac rolled his eyes at me. “Not much of a baseball fan?”
“No, that’s not true,” I said, pressing a hand to my sticky forehead. “I love the Yankees. It’s just that—”
“That she can’t stop thinking about Cole. And you,” Danny said, jabbing his cousin in the chest, “keep forgetting you’re supposed to be helping me practice. God, Isaac, you’re a horrible Benvolio.”
“Hey!” both Isaac and I shouted at the same time.
“I’m not thinking about Cole,” I said, defending myself.
“And I’m a great actor. Academy Award winning, thank you very much,” Isaac said, shaking his finger back and forth in Danny’s face.
“Isaac, if I remember correctly, you were the one who couldn’t play a tree in the spring recital without messing it up.”
“That was kindergarten,” Isaac mumbled, but Danny wasn’t listening.
“Jackie, I’m quiet, not blind,” he told me. “That dazed look that’s been on your face ever since you two came out of that closet says otherwise.”
“Say what?” Isaac demanded.
“I wasn’t like that,” I said. “I swear.” Because of his shy nature, Danny might have developed a certain affinity for perceptiveness, but this time he had it all wrong.